Kangana Ranaut

About

"My success is my sweet revenge against controversy."

Kangana Ranaut has left no stone unturned to be ruling the Internet with either her award-winning performances, her on-point style, or her extremely controversial statements. Always been a rebel, Kangana decided to run away from her house in order to pursue her career in acting, a career choice her father was not very pleased with.

Coming from a small town on Bhambla in Himachal Pradesh, little did the teenaged Kangana know that she would rule Bollywood one day, with remarkable performance in movies such as Queen and Tanu Weds Manu Returns. Apart from acting, Kangana is well-known for her fashion sense and launched her limited clothing line Marquee with fashion label Vero Moda.

Early Life

Kangana Ranaut was born on the 23rd of March to Amardeep Ranaut, a businessman, and Asha Ranaut, a school teacher. She has an elder sister Rangoli Ranaut, who is also her manager, and a younger brother Akshat Ranaut. She studied at the DAV School in Chandigarh, and after finishing with schooling she went on to study at a college in Shimla where she chose science as her core subject. Her family insisted that she become a doctor and hence Kangana prepared for the All India Pre-Medical Test. However, after she failed in her chemistry exam in college, she reconsidered her career options and decided to move to Delhi for a year. Despite her father`s disapproval of her plan, Kangana was firm on her decision, which eventually strained her relationship with her father.

After relocating to Delhi, Kangana pursued her modeling career after the Elite Modelling Agency spotted her, but she soon got bored of it since it lacked any scope for creative freedom. She then joined the Asmita Theatre Group, where she got the opportunity to train under well-renowned theater director Arvind Gaur. She gained a clear perspective on life and realized that she wanted to become a Bollywood actress, after which she moved to Mumbai, again, against the will of her family. She was first seen on the big screen in Anurag Basu`s 2006 release Gangster alongside Emraan Hashmi and Shiney Ahuja. She only reconciled with her family in the year 2007.

Personal Life

During her struggling days, Kangana was in a relationship with Aditya Pancholi, who is a married man with kids and also twenty years elder to her. They were living in together before they decided to part ways. Soon after breaking up with him, Kangana found in love in her Raaz co-star Adhyayan Suman. The two dated for a year after which both of them decided to focus on their respective careers.

After having dated two men from the industry, Kangana later was in the news for her relationship with UK-based doctor and scientist, Nicholas Lafferty. However, the two decided to call it quits for reasons best known to them, but it is believed that the distance played a major role in their split. In 2016, Kangana made it to the headlines with her alleged relationship with co-star and Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan, however, the relationship was never officially accepted by the two.

Acting Career

When Kangana first came to Mumbai, she was offered a role in producers Ramesh Sharma and Pahlaj Nilani`s film I Love You Boss. However, the project got shelved and Kangana was spotted by director Anurag Basu at a coffee shop. He then asked her to audition for his movie, but producer Mukesh Bhattfelt that the seventeen-year-old Kangana was too young to portray the role of an alcoholic woman. He then went on to cast Chitrangada Singh, however, she had to opt out due to date issues. Eventually, the role came back to Kangana and she won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut.

After the success of Gangster, she was cast for Mohit Suri`s Woh Lamhe, which was loosely based on the life of actress Parveen Babi and her illicit relationship with director Mahesh Bhatt, where she portrayed the role of a schizophrenic actress. She was praised for her performance in the movie. Kangana was then seen in Madhur Bhandarkar`s Fashion after having featured in Shakalaka Boom Boom, Life in a...Metro, and Tamil movie Dhaam Dhoom. Kangana essayed the role of a supermodel in Fashion, who is also a drug addict. Her portrayal of the character garnered a lot of praise and she went on to win the National Film Award for it.

Anand L. Rai`s Tanu Weds Manu, in 2011, is considered as a game changer for Kangana. She was seen playing the role of a carefree girl, unlike her previous roles. Kangana achieved commercial success after Rakesh Roshan`s sci-fi flick Krrish 3 in 2013, where she played the role of a shape-shifting mutant. The movie went on to become one of Bollywood`s highest-grossing movies of all time.

After this big commercial success, Kangana was seen in Vikas Bahl`s Queen for which she also co-wrote the dialogues. Her performance in Queen is considered to be one of her finest courtesy of her effortless acting and dialogue delivery. She won, both, the Filmfare Award for Best Actress and the National Film Award for Best Actress for Queen. She got third-time lucky with the National Film Award in 2016 with Anand L. Rai`s 2015 release Tanu Weds Manu Returns, sequel to the 2011 movie, where Kangana plays a double role. She perfected the roles of both the carefree Tanuja and the Haryanvi athlete Kusum.

In 2017, Kangana starred alongside Shahid Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan in the Vishal Bhardwaj directorial Rangoon; a period drama which opened to mixed reviews but earned the actress much praise for her portrayal of the feisty Julia. This was followed by the heist comedy Simran, which was generally well-received. Among Kangana`s other significant projects in recent times are the historical drama Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi (2019) where she essayed the titular role, the black comedy thriller Judgemental Hai Kya (2019) alongside Rajkummar Rao and Panga (2019).